Feel Ways

Edited by: Tea Mutonji, Natasha Ramoutar, Adrian De Leon

Feel Ways is a breakthrough anthology of works by writers of Scarborough, Ontario. It is inspired by the suburb of Scarborough in Greater Toronto, shedding light on its myths and its many stories set in the diverse immigrant communities that arrived in the 1960s and later. It presents us with a “chorus of emotional reality,” in a community in its most vibrant state. The collection includes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, and an introduction by the editors.

AUTHOR

Tea Mutonji

Tea Mutonji is an award-winning poet and writer. Born in Congo-Kinshasa, she now lives and writes in Scarborough, Ontario where she was named emerging writer of the year (2017) by the Ontario Book Publishers Organization. Shut Up You’re Pretty is her first book.

AUTHOR

Natasha Ramoutar

Natasha Ramoutar is an Indo-Guyanese writer by way of Scarborough (Ganatsekwyagon) at the east side of Toronto. She is the Social Media Assistant at the Festival of Literary Diversity. Her poetry collection, Bittersweet, was published by Mawenzi House in 2020. She is the fiction editor of Feel Ways, an anthology of Scarborough writing, published in 2021. She lives in Scarborough, Ontario.

AUTHOR

Adrian De Leon

Adrian De Leon is an award-winning writer and public historian. His most recent books are barangay: an offshore poem (Buckrider Books, 2021), which was named one of the best Canadian poetry collections of 2021 by CBC Books, and Bundok: A Hinterland History of Filipino America (University of North Carolina Press, 2023). He teaches Asian American Studies in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, and will soon move to New York University to teach US-Philippine histories.

Reviews

“While much of Souther Ontario’s literature is associated with Toronto, this collection affirms a vibrant movement occurring within Scarborough.” —Quill & Quire

“This book is like a mixtape of Scarborough stories that belong to the streets and trails and concrete as much as to the authors whose fierce visions bring them to you. The force of Feel Ways is the dailyness that the voices of these new writers raise above the single stroke of often obliterating stories.” –Canisia Lubrin, author of The Dyzgraphxst and Voodoo Hypothesis

“Who better than the shining trio of Adrian De Leon, Téa Mutonji, and Natasha Ramoutar to curate this original tribute to the ache and love of a place? Feel Ways is proof again that here, where we have lived, there is beauty, fierce laughter, and enduring life.” –David Chariandy, author of I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You, Brother, and Soucouyant

“From the heartbreak of love to buying mangos out of white vans on the weekends, these are love letters to Scarborough and to all of us who live here, who have escaped, or who have chosen to stay. Whatever your feelings are about the suburbs, Feel Ways forces us to be seen for all our ugly and all our magnificence.” –Eternity Martis, author of They Said This Would Be Fun